Once a former British Colony, now a Space Power - India to launch 2 British Satellites on 16 Sept

The two UK satellites- Novasar and S1-4-weighing 450 kg each will be the main payload as there will be no Indian satellite. Britain will use these satellites for earth observation

Talking to TOI on Monday, Isro chairman K Sivan said, "It will be a full-fledged commercial launch. However, this will not be the first time Isro is going for the full commercial launch"

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up for a full commercial launch on Sunday (September 16) when its PSLV C42 will lift off with two British satellites from the Sriharikota launchpad.

The two UK satellites- Novasar and S1-4-weighing 450 kg each will be the main payload as there will be no Indian satellite. Britain will use these satellites for earth observation.

Talking to TOI on Monday, Isro chairman K Sivan said, "It will be a full-fledged commercial launch. However, this will not be the first time Isro is going for the full commercial launch."

On April 23, 2007, the space agency had for the first time launched a rocket solely for commercial purpose. Its PSLV-CA carried Italy's astronomical satellite AGILE as the main payload. Thereafter, on July 10, 2015, Isro achieved another milestone when it carried out the heaviest commercial mission successfully as its PSLV-XL lifted off with five UK satellites together weighing 1,439 kg.

Till now, ISRO has launched 237 foreign satellites of 28 countries. ISRO is, therefore, making all efforts to be competitive and wants to launch more and more commercial satellites to capture a lion's share of the global market.

Unfortunately, ISRO still holds a miniscule 0.6% share in the global satellite launch market, which is estimated to be worth Rs 36,000 crore. On the other hand, Elon Musk-owned US private space agency SpaceX, which had 5% share in the commercial satellite launch market in 2013, continued to grow and gobbled up 45% share in 2017 due to its low prices and reusable rocket technology. It is projected to eat up 60% share this year. The US government-owned space agency NASA and Space X together capture over 65% of the market share, followed by European space agency Arianespace.

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